Living proof
by EimiaRae
Summary: A story about the first time Tony, still upset over Nina, sees Michelle Dessler and other major points in their relationship, I do not own 24 or the characters this is my 1st story so please comment and tell me what you think and if I should write more :D Decided I should change the rating. Used to be K , changed to T for language.
1. The first time he saw her: Tony

**This is my first story, I hope you like it, I do not own 24 or any of the characters.**

Tony Almeida sat up slightly straighter when George Mason announced a new worker would be arriving shortly. Smothering a yawn he lifted his hand up to his head level before jumping straight into his question, waiting was for losers. "Who is it? The new worker, are they capable, I mean, this isn't exactly a coffee shop vacancy." George turned round and gave Tony an icy look, before returning his attention to the rest of the group. "Weirdly enough I was aware that this is a serious position, that's why when the worker applied I accepted her." George stabbed Tony again with his eyes but Tony barely noticed, his ears pricked up, the new worker was a woman? Tony opened his mouth to object but George stopped him, lifting his hand up in a casual gesture not that different to Tony's hand up motion. "Almeida, remind us all, who am I?" Tony rolled his eyes; George always did like to bring out the sarcasm card.  
"Head of CTU sir." Tony said, leaning back in his chair.  
"Well then damn, I must be superior to you, which means you don't argue, you're all free to return to work, except Tony, come up to my office, now."

Standing in the glass office that once belonged to Jack felt wrong to Tony; he had had many arguments with Jack in here, mainly about… Nina. Thinking her name broke the dam of memories that Tony's mind had decided to try and block from entering his minds eye. Tony flinched as one particular memory swam into view, Nina smiling cheekily, lying out on Tony's sofa, sipping a cup of coffee looking so damn _demure _and ladylike it was almost impossible to remember the pain she'd caused to everyone, including him. "Tony if you could kindly return back to earth I'd appreciate it." George's voice, laced with sarcasm and an underlying irritation seeped through the painful memories, making Tony almost happy for once to be hearing it, almost. "Tony! I was just saying that you will like the new worker, she's young, and pretty, she seems nice and I doubt she'll be another Nina." Tony flinched and knew George had noticed, in a far too Dad like motion for Tony to be physically comfortable with George clamped a hand down on Tony's shoulder, squeezing it before quickly withdrawing as if he was lying his palm on white hot coals, he continued "I understand if you would prefer not to be here when she arrives, and you are free to leave if you wish." Tony almost fell backwards in disbelief; he clutched the desk for support, staring at George. "Are you serious?" he was very tempted to add "You're actually trying to not be an asshole" but he managed to restrain himself. Then Tony thought a bit, did he really want to go? Most people would dream of getting permission to go home early, run a bath, and watch TV but Tony knew it would be wasted on his part, he'd be worried about the next terrorist threat, the next bomb, next demand, next encrypted code, and he made up his mind. "Thanks George but uh, I'm gonna stick around." He brought a hand up to his face and scratched the stubble on his cheek, it might be fun to see who George would count as young and pretty, how old is he anyway, Tony wondered, 60? The woman will either be some 50 year old with greying hair, or the typical image of the "perfect" girl, some young twenty year old with long hair, perfect figure, blue eyes, tons of makeup and not a speck of personality inside of her, bracing himself to meet this stunning beauty he followed George, who had been bewildered but happy by his decision to stay at CTU, to the main entrance.

Tony leant against the wall as George Mason smiled warmly for the first time ever and walked through the gate to greet the woman in the car park, the smile soon slid as he realised it was raining like Scotland out there and started half running across the tarmac. Tony pulled out his brown wrinkly wallet and started leafing through, sorting the tens from twenties and putting them in separate folds of the crinkly leather, he pulled a few old shop receipts, looked around, and then dropped them on the metal grate behind him, waiting for the woman to make her grand entrance so he could go back to his desk, where it was warm, and there were people to talk to. Tony nodded at the security guard. "She's coming through now." It was raining hard and the security guard was covered in droplets of water. George came back first, using an open file to guard his head from any rain that tried to dare invade his personal, bald head space. Then the woman came, wearing a rain coat with a hood which cloaked her face in shadow. Tony couldn't see much, what with the massive black shadow over the workers face and the extraordinarily bad lighting in this particular part of the CTU building so they walked down the dingy tunnel in an awkward silence until they reached the main, warm, well lit part of the building that Tony preferred. Playing the gentleman he held the door open for the woman, George slipped through as well, mouthing "thanks mate" through the vast grin sitting slap bang on the middle of his face. Tony walked through behind the women, watching the rhythm of her steps. They all stopped when they reached the main computer floor, the woman pulled down her hood and shook her head and shoulders, spraying minuscule particles of rainwater all over Tony's dry shirt, she froze staring at him. "I'm so sorry, I honestly didn't mean to do that, I'm Michelle Dessler." Tony couldn't answer her, he was to busy taking her in, wow.

Tony's eyes travelled up and down Michelle, still unable to properly see her. She was wearing a black skirt, purple blouse and the before mentioned raincoat with hood. Her face was heart shaped, with skin as smooth and white as milk. Her lips were pink in contrast with her white cheeks and they smiled nervously. A cap of tight brown red curls framed her face, bouncing on her slender shoulders, a few strands lay against her perfect skin, she pushed a strand from her eyes and Tony couldn't look away. Her eyes were big, and such a deep beautiful brown Tony felt his breath slowly escaping from him, the brown was similar to his own eyes, but it seemed richer, more alive, on her captivating face, he eyelashes were long and dark, her eyebrows arched and perfect, a pink tinge appeared on her previously white cheeks which gave her an angelic and radiant warmth, lighting her up from deep within, Michelle shuffled anxiously, switching from one foot to the other, slightly nervous of Tony's close scrutiny, he finally pulled himself back to Earth, though forcing his eyes from her face was one of the hardest things he'd ever done, Tony didn't know, but he had an idea that he might, just, survive without Nina, even knowing her betrayal, Michelle had proved that there could still be completely uncontained, uncontaminated beauty in the world, she was living proof.

**Please tell me if I should keep on writing and what you think of this story, hope you liked it!**


	2. The CTU bomb: Michelle

**Second chapter from Michelle's point of view, once again I don't own 24 or it's characters, please review and tell me what you think!**

Michelle found herself staring at this new man in front of her, she didn't know him but something inside her clicked into place, it was the weirdest most exhilarating feeling ever. He was staring at her, probably thinking "Jesus what a freak" what with her stupid curls doing everything to elude her hair band, stretching it until it eventually snapped. During this time when the guy was, well, staring at her, Michelle felt a familiar rush of warmth develop, growing hotter and hotter until her cheeks felt like they were on fire, oh God she was blushing. She brought her hand up to her cheek, trying to look nonchalant as possible as she mentally measured the heat of her skin, hitting the high nineties she guessed, she let her hand fall to the side again. She moved from one foot to the other, not knowing whether to stare back at the guy or move away, eventually, he looked away, keeping his eyes down as his boss, the bald guy, grinned at him, sarcasm quirking his lips upwards. "Well Michelle, this, is Tony Almeida, he'll be showing you around, he'll lead you to your station, I'm afraid you'll need to get up to speed and get to work quite quickly." Michelle nodded and watched as Mr Mason walked into the glass office at the top of the metal stairs. Tony cleared his throat "You'll be working in station 19, here." He led her over to a computer station, she sat in the chair, looking up at him, she nodded. "We're following up a lead on this guy." He clicked around on the screen until a blurry photo popped up. "Phillip Johanssen, probably a fake name, we've been trying to trace back phone calls, that's what you'll be doing. You're settled?" Michelle nodded as Tony pushed himself off her desk and walked over to his station, Michelle saw it was near hers and she could see him clearly.

For those first few crazy confusing weeks, Tony was the closest person to Michelle, everyone else seemed to be against her, she saw the looks they gave each other when she sent the wrong code or messed up a schematic, Tony stayed patient and loyal, sticking up for her and helping her so that eventually, after around four months, she was almost at home, knowing the inside rules and she started getting things right, Tony and her grew better friends, she was friends with other people as well, but Tony was, different. After 18 months, Michelle had her first serious threat against national security, being internet protocol manager meant working with tony, and Michelle knew by this time that she really liked the guy, against the smarter part of her judgement Michelle kept stealing looks at him, brushing past him deliberately and in general acting more like a twelve year old then a women in charge of helping save the country. "Alright, you guys know the drill, there's a nuclear bomb, and we're finding it, no questions." Tony was standing on the stairs, addressing the whole floor, Michelle wondered if anyone else saw the super intense look that really looked good on Tony sitting in his eyes. Michelle glanced at her watch, 10.52, not that working at CTU was boring, but it definitely dragged on. Tony ended his lecture, letting everyone get back to work; Michelle got up and headed towards the filing cabinet, she threw Tony a "good speech" smile, when she was thrown to the floor with a massive crash.

Opening her eyes, Michelle felt pain shoot through her head as she struggled to get up. Dust was everywhere, along with blood, it covered the floors and the bodies lying spread eagled on them. Michelle turned her head, getting to a wobbly standing position. A thought ran through her aching head, Tony. Michelle stumbled over dead bodies and alight electrical equipment. She walked past her work colleagues, all of whom were shouting other people's names, yelling in pain, or demanding to know what was going on. She saw a collapsed pile of wreckage, and someone trapped, a man. She started pushing through people, "Tony." She said desperately, dropping to her knees. "Tony?" She peered into the wreckage and saw that the man lying there was dead, no doubt. Michelle was sure her heart stopped and feeling of anguish, mixed with heartbreak washed over her, she started crying hard. Michelle was busy being totally zoned out, mourning Tony, when a voice over the other side of the building stopped her sobs. "Can we get some help over here?" Michelle's head shot up and she looked around, Tony was there, one arm round a man covered in blood, he was covered in dust and was bleeding from a cut but it was minor. "A little help?" he asked again, looking all over the place.  
"Tony." She said, standing up and stumbling over. Tony turned his head and his eyes bored into hers, Michelle thought she saw relief shoot through them, for a split second. "Michelle." He said; as she bent down to avoid some exposed wires that were shooting amber sparks. When she reached him he said "I need you to set up a triage, you can take Luke with ya." He released Luke's shoulder and let the guy on Luke's left carry him to Michelle.  
"Here Luke, I've got you, it's Michelle." She tried to make her voice sound like a half second ago she wasn't collapsed on the floor in a sobbing wreck, about to totally lose it in front of the whole of CTU. Michelle watched as Tony made a call, Michelle could only guess by his irritated tone, to Mason. "Look, a nuclear device is set to go off some time today in Los Angeles, we just lost half the people who were in a position to keep it from happening, so don't tell me you're still trying to cover your own ass!" Tony breathed out as the other person said something that he obviously wasn't happy to hear. "Yea, right." He closed his phone and leant on the table looking round at the destruction. Michelle knew the pressure he was under, George needed to be here, she also knew he needed advice on what to with Paula, who was still stuck under a ton of metal, which was being moved literally brick by brick to avoid any chance of the whole building collapsing on her. No-one had really known Paula, and she was a bit annoying, but Michelle knew that Tony didn't want her to die; she'd barely even started living. There was a massive groan and the metal that was trapping Paula shifted, pushing down more. "Paula, Paula? She Ok?" Tony asked the rescue worker. "Tony." Michelle called over; he looked up from the metal wreckage and struggled to stand. Michelle walked over until they met  
"What's up?" he asked.  
"Just got off the phone with Jack Bauer." She said, placing a hand casually on Tony's arm, he hardly noticed.  
"Where is he?" Tony asked, looking at her but clearly worrying about Paula, who wasn't responding to the rescue workers urgent pleas.  
"He's on his way to see Walt, he wanted Mason to know." Tony's face showed clear annoyance when George Masons name was mentioned.  
"Well Masons checked out; just get the information directly to NSA alright?" Michelle nodded but as Tony started to walk away suddenly remembered something.  
"He asked about his daughter Kim." She said as Tony turned back to her, he sighed and his eyes filled with disappointment and worry.  
"Ah no." he said, still shaking his head, Michelle asked what was the problem. "She was on her way here, look can you check to see if she was here?"Michelle nodded,  
"Thanks." Tony brushed his hand lightly by Michelle's as he went back to Paula and the rescue teams, a fluttery feeling went off in Michelle's stomach, she shook her head.  
"Focus Michelle, you have work to do." She muttered sharply, before finally setting off.

For the best part of half hour Michelle worked steadily, before she saw out of the corner of her eye Paula being lifted by a load of rescue workers, covered in blood but seemingly in one piece. She was lifted onto a gurney and pushed down the hallway by a dozen rescue workers and Tony, who really wasn't helping but seemed to think he was. To Michelle's surprise they weren't wheeling Paula to a hospital, which was she needed to be really, she was parked in the corner of CTU least infested with workers clutching arms and ankles and wailing in pain. She looked over to her left and saw Tony, looking contrite; she let her feet run over to him, just managing to skip over a collapsed keyboard before tripping and falling flat on her face. "Why's Paula still here?" Michelle asked, she was actually getting pretty angry, Tony wasn't insisting they get Paula to a hospital, he was letting them leave her here, where she could die, Tony didn't turn round, just kept walking, not even giving a surprised eyebrow lift at Michelle's cold no-nonsense tone."Masons call." He said simply, walking briskly passed her, keeping his voice emotionless. "She has almost no chance of survival if we don't get her to a hospital, now." She walked behind him, trying to look into his eyes but he kept his face away from her view.  
"I know." He said, sounding ashamed. Michelle was confused by Tony's earlier answer "Masons call."; Mason wasn't coming back was he? She asked Tony and he replied "Well he's back, he's trying to revive Paula long enough so she can access the information she was sending to NSA." Michelle stopped, dumbfounded, they had left the main CTU floor by now and were in a small office space, alone.

"So he's just gonna let her die?" Michelle was sure Tony was going to agree it was an awful thing to do, he didn't.  
"I'm not to sure he made the wrong call, Paula is the only person that can retrieve the information." Looking at the rest of the madness on the main floor Tony leaned forward, his palms on the table in front of him, Michelle saw how torn up he was, and it almost killed her, she took a step forward, remembering the plummet of her heart when she thought Tony was dead. His head hung down and he sighed. Michelle's mind had pretty much vacated the premises when she took another step closer to him, lifted her hand and placed it awkwardly on his upper back near his neck. "I'm so sorry, I'm sorry Tony." She said softly. He breathed in, pausing for a moment, before pulling away and turning round to face her.  
"The thing is, I'm the one that hired her, this job was all she wanted to do, and she didn't even get a chance." Michelle wanted to take a step forward but stopped herself.  
"She done her job, she did have a chance, she's a great agent, and if she doesn't… make it, at least she'll know she died helping the country, think about it Tony, and stop blaming yourself, it hurts me when you do." That last part slipped out accidently, Tony looked up at her confused, Michelle started to walk backwards towards the door.  
"I'm going to check on Luke." She lied blatently, before bolting from the room.


	3. Their First Kiss: Tony and Michelle

Tony watched as Michelle, his closest friend, picked up the phone and said her surname in that sweet little professional tone that always made him smile. A work colleague came up and started asking about papers; Tony answered the questions, 5 percent of his attention span focused on Debra, the other 95 percent focused on Michelle. Debra soon saw she wasn't getting anywhere and tactfully suggested they pick up later, Tony nodded automatically and the minute her back had turned he flicked his head back towards Michelle, the conversation had got heated now, halfway through a sentence Michelle stopped, repeating "Danny, are you there?" a few times before putting it down, sighing. Tony sighed too, it was weird whenever she was feeling mentally stressed or upset, a weird sort of feeling appeared in his chest before he started feeling like that too, as if he was taking on her feelings, he wished he could take all of her stress, he'd do anything to see her smile, she hadn't smiled in a while but Tony still couldn't get it out of his head, he let the memory of Michelle, awkwardly asking him out a few hours ago, how small and vulnerable she'd looked, almost like she was scared, that was the part of Michelle that endeared him, he knew the professional Michelle who was brilliant at her job and treated you with a warm but refrained smile. Thinking about the soft and sweet Michelle, Tony didn't notice Danny entering until he heard him start shouting at Carrie. Tony got up and hopped with his crutches, Michelle was grabbing Danny's arm, trying to pull her loud and, in Tony's opinion, probably intoxicated brother, away from Carrie. "Hey what's going on?" He asked, worried for Michelle's safety, but Danny brushed with him away with a flick of his arm. "My sister works here." He turned to Carrie "What you don't return my calls? I tried five times." Carrie struggled against him, he was grabbing her arm firmly and refusing to let go.  
"I've been very busy right now Danny." Danny suddenly lunged, seizing her throat and pinning her to the wall, he didn't mean to hurt her, anyone could see it, he was trying to get her to listen and he was pinning her gently but she complained and choked like he was breaking her trachea. Security grabbed Danny and pulled him off, leaving him still shouting at Carrie whilst being dragged away.

Tony reluctantly pressed Carries throat, and decided that her trachea was indeed in full working order (unfortunately). She proved it by talking non-stop about how frightening it was, playing for attention, and it worked. Tony looked up and saw Michelle standing on the edge of the group, her lip trembled, her head drooped and she walked away. Tony stood up picked up his crutches, he knew it would be better if he approached her silently, rather than clonking away on the great metal contraptions like a mad scientist. Trying to shuffle quietly he made his way towards her.

She was standing, face towards the entrance Tony was walking through, tears made tracks down her face and her body language was screaming "Get away from me." Tony ignored this very obvious sign that she wanted to be alone, simply taking one look at her wet pale cheeks before going straight up to her and standing in front of her. When she saw him, she raised an arm and wiped her tears, clearing her throat she shakily turned to face him, it was obvious to Tony she was reluctant. "What you doing back here?" Tony asked. She was leaning against the wall in a seldom used tunnel, clearly _not _working, but Michelle decided to lie to Tony anyway. "I was heading to IT, still trying to crack the cpb software." She sniffed, adverting her eyes from Tony's intense gaze, Tony lightly shook his head, trying not to feel disappointment in the fact that Michelle didn't trust herself to let him know she was upset, what did she think he'd do? Shout at her to get to work? Tony took a step towards her. "ITs the other way." He said softly, watching her intently. He could practically hear her cursing herself for being so stupid. She took a deep breath before looking Tony in the eyes. "I just, I just need a minute Tony." Tony stepped round until he was standing right next to her, he bent his head and spoke tenderly."Hey, Carrie's gonna be fine." Michelle started crying again, salty water trailing down her face; she kept on taking breaths, like she wanted to say something. "Is she, is she gonna press charges?" Michelle stammered, Tony shook his head, making sure he kept his voice low and level.  
"No, I don't think so." Michelle looked down and took a ragged gasp, like the oxygen was running low, Tony felt himself getting breathless as well. Michelle shook her head, a look in her eyes like she hated herself. "It's all my fault." She said bitterly. "I should have seen it coming."  
"It's family, things happen, you can't see it coming." Tony pointed out.  
"He's my _brother_." Emphasizing the word brother she turned her body slightly, her shoulder bumping against his. "I mean his kids; maybe I should have told him about the bomb"  
"It was a tough choice, but you made it and by the way, you were right." Tony said firmly, but Michelle was shook her head. "No, nothing I've done today is right, I." Tony looked into her eyes, hating the pain he saw there. "Michelle…"  
"All those people today. Dead. And then, and this recording I mean, I don't know if we're right about that, I-I just-I can't-I can't do this anymore Tony I can't, I can't." Michelle stuttered through her sobs.  
"Oh Michelle, Come here come here." Tony put his arms round Michelle and let her break down on his shoulder, her arms went round by his shoulders and she gasped "I'm so tired, and I'm-I'm so scared." Tony tried to make comforting sounds, saying it wasn't her fault, she had been brilliant, because she had, but it clearly wasn't registering in Michelle's mind, "It's ok, it's ok. It's alright, it's alright." They pulled apart. Michelle's hands were still resting on Tony's shoulders and she was staring into his eyes. Tony was cradling Michelle's face, brushing her hair from her eyes and stroking her cheeks, the space between them was only about a foot wide and the chemistry was through the roof. Non verbal conversation was easier to keep up and actions spoke louder than words ever could. Staring into her deep brown eyes, Tony so badly wanted to kiss her, but was sure she would push him away, maybe even press harassment charges. Just as he was about to pull away Michelle done something that stunned him.

He was right in front of her, so close she could smell his cologne and he was brushing her curls back like the most casual gesture ever, though it made her stomach flip and do somersaults whenever he touched her. So Michelle wasn't in her most conscious frame of mind when she leaned forward and claimed his mouth.

It was incredible, the moment her lips touched his she felt like static sparks had exploded all around her, his hands were still cradling her face and he didn't pull away; Michelle soon did, scared that she was going too far. "I'm sorry, I'm sor-" halfway through her apology Tony silenced her, bringing her back into the embrace and pressing his mouth to hers again. For several seconds Michelle stayed in absolute heaven until a voice, an unwanted voice, came from the entrance of the tunnel. "Tony, Chappelle's looking for you." Carrie's sneering tone announced. Tony nodded and sent her away, refusing to look Michelle in the eye, he scratched his cheek once before walking away, leaving Michelle to collapse against the wall, in utter disbelief of what had just happened, a shaky smile flickered on her face, before it disappeared as the familiar rush of warmth appeared in Michelle's cheeks, her token blush had made a comeback, Michelle sighed, about time.


	4. So it's a date?: Michelle and Tony

Walking up to Tony's office screwed Michelle's stomach in knots, even after the kiss and the phone call that had proceeded it she still felt like she was to blame for anything that happened. She hesitated outside, wondering what to do, she done a mental flick through the catalogue of possible "signals" he had either reciprocated or even initiated, there were countless looks, smiles, laughs, then there was the conversation where he'd admitted that there was "something" hanging between them, the kiss he hadn't pulled away from, the phone call when he said he wasn't sorry it had happened, and in the holding room, Michelle let out a deep breath remembering how bold she had been, sitting next to him , moving her hand over and weaving her fingers into his, the feel of his smooth skin made Michelle want to tremble but she forced herself to calm down. Taking a deep breath she walked in, carefully drawing her hips inward to avoid an awkward collision with Ryan Chappelle, who was looking a bit put out, she noticed he shot Tony a look of contempt as he clattered down the metal stairs, posture indicating he owned the place, no change there then. Tony looked up when she entered, a smile breaking out on his face, he quickly regained his composure, but not quickly enough, Michelle still saw it. A spark of new confidence flared inside Michelle's chest as she properly entered the office, rather than just staying like a bystander on the outskirts. "Hey." He said finally greeting her. "Hey," she greeted him back. "The new shift is here, they've been brought up to speed." Tony nodded gently, anticipating what was coming next.  
"I was thinking I'd pick up my brother and go home." Michelle said.  
_Unless you have other plans? _The thought ran through her mind on a rampage, before deciding to try to convey itself within her eyes before the common sense part of her brain, usually the one with the upper hand, came back from wherever the hell it had been these last few hours. A flick of something darted through Tony's eyes before he blinked it away, Michelle tried to recall it, disappointment? Tony walked over to her and stood in front of her, he scratched his cheek, a motion as associated with him as Michelle's blush was to her, then he cleared his throat. "Look Michelle um, there was a handful of people who made a big difference today." His voice was sweet and grateful, then his face softened. "You were one of em." Michelle couldn't stop a stupid smile appearing, she was just so damn happy, she'd helped, and he was thanking her for it. "You made some tough choices and went up against me and I wanted you to know you were right" Michelle could hardly speak, this was Tony Almeida, the guy who was always right, you stand up against him you stand up at your own risk, and here he was congratulating her for it, she half expected a couple of guys who looked like Johnny Depp to come out with a glass of Champaign and a big bunch of roses. It didn't happen. _Oh well, I hate Champaign_, she thought to herself, before she finally came back to Earth, snapping out of Michelle-land, her special place, very nice but vastly under populated, only one resident, who liked to drift between two worlds when she was meant to be working. "So, um, why don't you go home and get some rest?" The adversity on her face was visible five miles away, Michelle's head dropped down, another give away sign, and she turned her back without saying a word, arms folded defiantly over her chest, at least she knew where she stood. What a boringly ordinary thing to say, like he was talking to Carrie Turner or something. Not that she was expecting a diamond ring, but maybe a "Wanna get a coffee?" or "You know we should talk about earlier." Even with the awkwardness a conversation like that would cause Michelle would be happy Tony was actually acknowledging that something _big _had happened. Surprising how quickly you can go from liking someone to wishing they'd hurry up and get fired already. She had Tony's measure all right, he was one of those guys who kissed a girl and promised he'd call, then leave her waiting at the phone half the night, Michelle knew from personal experience how much that sort of waiting ruined your hair and gave you seriously bad bags under your eyes for days, she wasn't going through that crap again, she promised herself… oh what's the point? She was never as good at keeping promises to herself as she was keeping them for other people, she'd promised the exact same thing after Roger had toyed with her, she'd actually _vowed_ she'd never let it happen again, yet two months later Luke appears, then Tony. She started walking out, knowing that would be the only way she'd be able to keep her promise; she'd go home, make a mug of hot chocolate and watch some Harry Hill TV Burp reruns on the little TV set in her lounge, alone. She'd reached the door; one foot on the metal steps, when Tony called from his office. "Michelle." The speed she turned around with shouldn't be humanly possible for a sleep deprived women of 25. She shuffled on her feet, watching as Tony stood there, his moment to shine, totally lost for words, his mouth kept moving but he was silent for at least ten seconds before nodding. His eyes flitted to the right briefly before he said "See you tomorrow." That was it? Is he having a bloody laugh? With a build up like that anyone would have thought her was about to make up a queens speech of the top of his freakin head! Then she remembered something her cousin had taught her, like gospel, when she was a tiny girl. "When a guy wants to say something normal, like, to a friend or work colleague, he'll come out and say it, if he is going to say something to a girl he likes, maybe ask them out or say he likes you, nine times out of ten he'll bail out and say something totally unconnected to any romance at all, it's guy speak that's all, it'll confuse you Chelle, but trust me, you learn to spot these things." Michelle wished Aimee was alive now, since she'd died two year ago in a car crash Michelle had been like a broken woman, Aimee was like a sister to Michelle. Closing the door on her way out, Michelle stepped out of The Memory House in Her Head and returned to the guy who made her feel like fainting every time he glanced at her. He was staring into her eyes, she felt dizzy, falling into the perfect deep brown, a weird but brilliant contrast to the light yellow specks surrounding his pupil. "Focus Chelle, for Gods sake are you totally blind? He's head over heels for you, go on." Aimee's voice was suddenly loud and clear in the office, like she was standing on the metal step next to her; Michelle felt some of Aimee's confidence seep into the pores of her own skin. She lifted her eyes to meet his and grinned, not a shy soft little friendly smile, a mysterious smile, utterly captivating, lighting up her face, a glint of cheeky little girl hiding deep inside, like the laugh she would try to conceal when she was thirteen and Aimee was sixteen and they'd both be in trouble, standing next to each other, Aimee would keep pinching her hands which were folded behind her back and muttering things like "Hurry it up." And "Got a dental appointment in an hour." Whenever she had to "cough", the circumstances couldn't have been more different, but the reasoning behind the smile was the same, a hidden meaning, this one nice and simple, "You like me Almeida, quit hiding it." She nodded lightly and walked politely away, trying not to scream out loud with the contained excitement bottled up inside her.

As she walked away I grinned, like a schoolboy, one thought running through my head, "What have I got myself into?" the thought wasn't critical or negative, it was like a teasing voice in my ear. An hour later, submerged under paperwork, and happy to be back in my chair, yes Ryan, _my _chair, not yours, the urge that had been tugging at me for the best part of 45 minutes finally won. I put down my pen and pushed a report out of the way, sorry Ohio, maybe one day your safety form will be fully completed, one can only hope. I pulled at the phone in front of me and put it to my ear, resting it between my cheek and shoulder; I dialled the number 6, and my speed dial did the rest.  
"Hello?" Her voice, as sweet as golden honey, leaked through the phone, she sounded quite tired, crap had he woken her? "Uh Michelle it's me, Tony, did I wake you." He felt inclined to ask; straight away she answered him, energy buzzing in her voice. "Oh God no, you didn't, I just left Danny's house, on my way home, so what's up?" Awkwardness struck me, I'm so stupid for even attempting this, just put the phone tony, say you forgot or something. I gripped the phone, about to put it down. "Wait, don't hang up." Michelle said quickly, is she psychic? "What do you want to say?" She asked again. I swallowed. _Man up, she doesn't bite, _my mind screamed. "Ok, I just wanted to say, I- I'm sorry for being so…sort of distant earlier." He paused, trying to gauge her reaction.  
"Ok, so what e_lse?" _How the hell did she… Michelle sighed_ "_I can tell there's another thing, it's in your voice Tony." _Ok, I'm taking over, you clearly can't do it._ The reckless part of my brain shouted, he walked up the logical part and kicked him from the mail control of my brain, prodding around until he found the "My feelings for Michelle." File, he reads it, chuckled and got to work.  
"Well, it- it's late I- I know, but maybe, Yo- you probably wo- won't wan- want to but do y- ya wan-" "Ugh, I can't work under these conditions" the reckless part thought, flicking the "stutter" switch off. "Much better." He tapped the speech keyboard and the words spilt out like clockwork, sadly, the words were so clear that a deaf person who spoke Japanese could get the basic point. "Do you want to go get a coffee or something?" Oh my God. The logic part of my brain finally got up and ran through the brain control door. "Hey, what did you do? Get out of here!" the overflowing anger gave him the strength to pull the reckless part away and chuck him out of the door. Checking the damage, he dropped his head into his hands, he'd blown in, that damn recklessness had blown it, turning the stutter switch back on he sat down, Tony was born a stutterer, that was the way he'd stay. "Tony are you serious?" Michelle sounded stunned.  
"I-I mean, id you want, I'm so- sorry, it was stu- stupid-"  
"Hang on and let me finish a sentence Tony! I'd love too, what time." She sounded so damn calm I envied her. "Uh, how about I meet you in the coffee shop down 4th street in ten minutes?"  
"Sure, Tony I'm glad you asked me." Oh God, she sounded so happy.  
"I am too, so it's a date?" the word jumped up and down on my tongue.  
"It's a date." I could hear the smile in her voice, smiling myself; I put the phone down, shoved the Ohio report away and grabbed my jacket, and locked the office behind me. "Where you going?" An IT worker called Peter asked me. I hesitated, not wanting to bring Michelle's name into it, she'd get ridiculed by every girl in the office, and Carrie wouldn't miss an opportunity to take the piss. "I've got a meeting with a work colleague." I said eventually, Peters eyes sparkled.  
"Michelle right? I won't say a word." I ignored him, walked out of CTU and headed to 4th street.


	5. Danny's Death

The look of anger on Michelle's face was impossible to miss. She was standing in a red blouse with a black skirt, one of her heels halfway across the floor. Tony sighed and stood up from his waiting chair, a comfy sofa in Michelle's lounge where he had sat, stationary for half an hour whilst she tried and discarded at least eight tenths of her wardrobe, it had been eight months since he'd asked Michelle out and she still utterly perplexed him sometimes, what had he done? He was trying to be all nice and romantic by taking her out after a hard days work, and she acted like he'd murdered a kitty cat. She pulled her heels on, grabbed her bag and stormed out; Tony stumbled after her, the door slamming loudly of its own volition. "Michelle, call me totally paranoid but I get the feeling your annoyed with me?" Tony suggested as the left her main apartment building and started to walk down the street. "Tony, use your head, what could have possibly upset me?" Michelle started, her voice growing less angry and more upset by the second, Tony realized what she was upset about. Out of simple concern for her feelings, he'd decided not to tell her he was going on a dangerous field mission with Jack next week. Michelle never would have known, if Peter had kept his big mouth shut. "Oh, shit." He muttered, Michelle had her arms folded, one foot tapping the rain splattered concrete beneath them. Tony scratched his cheek, looking around, trying to focus on a point near her head so he could look like he was facing her, without actually looking into her tearful eyes. Michelle glared at him. "Tony, you lied to me." She said simply, turning away from him and walking faster so she was at least four paces in front, Tony was angry, she was acting like he'd slept with another women or something.  
"Oh come on Michelle, you're taking it a bit far, for Gods sake, ok, so I lied, why do you care so much, I was just trying to stop you worrying."" Michelle spun round, hells scraping against the concrete.  
"You thought I'd worry less hearing it from Peter?" She screamed loudly "For gods sake Tony, and you can stop acting like I'm overreacting, because I know for a fact if this was me you'd be freaking out, but, the difference is, I'd actually tell you first!"  
"Chelle? Calm down." He said, but she raised her hand in the air.  
"No Tony, just don't." She said. Her eyes were leaking tears now, fists balled up in anguish, red curls cascading in messy, tangled clumps around her face. "Chelle…?" Tony was worried now, he took a step closer to her, she was determined to pull away. "Thanks for the invite but I'm not going out tonight." She said as she started to walk down the street, heels clacking on the pavement, back towards her apartment. Tony could see at least four guys staring at her, then back at him, sick leering grins on their faces. Tony could imagine all to well what would happen if he stormed off and even one of those guys went after Michelle. Tony started running after her. He grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her round. She looked up at him, then burst into tears, leaning against his chest. He pulled her closer, right there in the street. He wiped her tears and kissed her mouth gently. He pulled her so she was next to him, supported by his arm. She leant her head on his shoulder and allowed him to steer her back towards her flat.

When they reached the front door Michelle wordlessly handed the key to Tony, he opened the door and Michelle stumbled in, collapsing on the sofa from exhaustion. "Wanna tell me what's actually going on?" Tony asked, sitting next to her. She lifted her head, biting her lip. She took a breath and it all poured out of her in an emotional rush. "Tony, I got a call earlier, before you came over, it's Danny, he's-" she stopped, blinked hard and continued, her voice growing more unsteady. "Tony he's dead, they found him, and he overdosed Tony, suicide they're saying." Tony was unable to speak, watching as the women he thought he might love crumpled again and fell into further fits of hysteric crying he could do nothing more but pull her onto his lap, her head on his chest, and let her cry.

When Michelle had finished crying she wiped her eyes on the back of her hand, making no attempt to move from her position of ultimate comfort. Tony didn't want to move either, but knew that he had to. Gently he nudged her onto the sofa and stood up, walking into the kitchen, going to the third drawer, knowing that to be Michelle's drawer, from past visits he'd made. He pulled a box of tissues out and handed them to Michelle, she took one gratefully, wiped her eyes and looked at him reproachfully. "It's getting late." Tony said unnecessarily, the sky was already acrid black and the exhaustion in Michelle's eyes was so prominent not even the sadness that had recently appeared there, could mask it. Disappointment flashed by Michelle's face before she nodded, pointed to the door and walked wordlessly into her bedroom. Tony walked to her front door, opened it and stepped out into the cold hallway. About to close the door, something inside him hesitated, good thing too, because in that split second, Tony heard a sound that ripped him apart even though he had been hearing it all night, Michelle was crying.

Once again Tony had a fight inside him, reckless and logic, round two ding ding. Reckless was screaming "Go in there you bloody idiot, you caused it, fix it." This seemed fair enough, despite its unnecessary harshness. Logic however, had been considering the options carefully. "Hold on a minute mate, you go in there, you could ruin everything, no offence but she probably doesn't want to see you right now, talk to her tomorrow. Close the door and walk home." Reckless and Logic fought for several seconds, Tony, hand still paused on the doorknob, had had enough…

**Either send me an email or review and say what should happen next, does reckless or logic win? Whichever has most votes by next Friday will be what I write about next…**


	6. Michelle's sacrifice: Tony

_Stop it!_ Tony silently screamed, and the squabbles of reckless and logic faded away, he'd made his choice. He had been standing outside her house for nearly twenty minutes now. Turning his back to the door he walked down her corridor, remembering the night they'd came home late, laughing loudly in this corridor, and being interrupted by Michelle's neighbour, Gloria, a sixty five year old woman, who had given a disapproving look but nothing else. Twelve paces down, he had been counting them, he stopped, in that split second reckless jumped up, grabbed the controls and steered Tony Michelle-wards. Without the hesitation he pushed the door of Michelle's flat open, he slowed down inside, noticing Michelle's clothes on the floor. He walked up to her room, listening. The crying had stopped, maybe she was asleep? _I can't wake her._ He thought, but then he heard something, something that made him instantly freak. _SMASH._

Bang, the door was open, no knocking, and no tentative enquiries to whether the room was open for inspection, just straight in there. Tony's eyes travelled round the room, her mahogany wardrobe, black and white walls, landscape portraits and the soft fawn carpet, then her. She was lying, face down, on the bed, well, that wasn't quite correct. Her head was on the bed, from the waist down she was slumped on the floor. Instinctively, Tony went down on his knees, shaking her shoulder gently, she didn't respond, instead, her body flopped to the right, causing her head to slump off the bed, she was now totally out of it on the floor. Tony's heart sped up, looking round for the source of the smash, his eyes flicked to the right of the bed. Michelle's apartment was very small, she'd often talked to Tony about moving out but couldn't quite bring herself to do it, and one word summed it up, patio. It was the only thing that was stopping the flat from going up for sale. A large set of French doors leading out to a beautiful landing, complete with an amazing view of Los Angeles. One of the French doors was destroyed, glass covering the carpet. Tony stood up, went to explore, looking through the jagged hole left of the door. From this angle Tony saw a totally different view, for the first time he saw blood soaking the bed covers, smelt the gun residue in the air, and finally, at long last, spotted Michelle's gun, lying on the floor in front of him. Tony picked it up, smelling the end; the familiar smell of gun powder caused him to twitch his nose. For three seconds time stopped, Tony with the gun in hand, Michelle bleeding on the floor, the expressions on Tony's face changing slowly from confusion, to fear, to a very sudden light bulb-in-his-mind awareness. He dropped the gun, dropped to the floor and turned Michelle's body over all in one not so swift movement. A wound near her abdomen was bleeding; deep crimson blood trickling onto Tony's fingers. Terror sliced through Tony's body as he went through Michelle's pocket, finally finding her work phone. Flipping it open he called the first number, Chloe. "Chloe O'Brian CTU." Chloe's bored voice leaked through the phone. "God Chloe, you gotta help, Michelle she, she's been shot, her apartment, just get some damn help." Tony said, pressing Michelle's abdomen and waiting for an answer.  
"Michelle's hurt?" Chloe asked, frightened.  
"I just said that Chloe get help!" Tony shouted.  
"Got it." She said, hanging up.

Within ten minutes CTU was swarming Michelle's apartment, along with ambulance workers and half the street. Curtains twitched and windows opened, everyone trying to catch just a hint of the gossip going around. Tony stood by the ambulance, holding Michelle's hand as she lay, unresponsive, on the gurney. Shocked whispers chased each other round the apartment. _Michelle Dessler got shot, robbery apparently… I heard her boyfriend killed her… No, it was suicide… _Tony felt sick, they were gossiping about his Michelle, who was lying, possibly dying, inside an ambulance for God's sake. "Sweetheart, I know you're in pain, but please, just flicker your eyes open, I just want to know that you're ok." He waited, keeping his eyes on her serene angel like face. _Angels are coming for her now…_ a voice taunted him, he pushed it away. "Chelle? Sweetheart, please." Tears choked his voice, making him sound starved of oxygen. As he started silently weeping, sure she was never going to wake up, her breathing suddenly halted, and then it started getting irregular, like she'd been running. Her brown eyes flickered lightly, her lips parted and she whispered "I'm sorry Tony; sorry I was so stupid, sorry all this has happened, I'm just… I'm sorry for everything" Tony brought his hand up and slowly drew it down her cheek. He carefully pulled a shard of glass from her hair and bent to kiss her gently on her mouth. The ambulance men looked at him awkwardly, before one of them said "We need to take her now, you can't come in the ambulance, but, if you go to the hospital you can wait for her." Then, too suddenly they pulled the gurney into the ambulance, closed the doors and drove off.

Sitting in a plastic chair, a cup of cold coffee in his hand, untouched, Tony waited. People had come and gone, every time Tony saw a drop of blood his stomach lurched. It was his fault, the thought never left his mind and he knew as well as he knew his own name. If he hadn't upset her, hadn't left, they'd be out, or she'd be in his home, or it would be him shot, not her. "Code 334, 334, we're losing her!" A voice shouted from the room down the hall from Tony, instantly he was up, the coffee fell from his hands and spilt onto the floor and he was running down the corridor towards the operating room. A nurse saw him running and managed to stop him, planting both hands on his shoulders and speaking loudly. "Sir, please go back to the waiting area, you can't go in there." He fought against her, straining to look into the operating theatre. He saw a flash of white hospital robes and a possible glance of red curls before he was pulled away and anchored to another seat, the one he had previously occupied had been moved so that cleaners could clear up a mysterious coffee spillage…

Four long and draining hours of waiting later a doctor, young and tired with greasy blonde hair and a mustard stain on his shirt, came out of the theatre and walked up to Tony. "Mr Almeida?" Tony lifted his eyes from the ground. The doctor's eyes didn't reveal anything about Michelle's possible state. "Yes? How is she doctor, is she ok?" He asked desperately. The doctor glanced back at the theatre, seemingly happy to keep Tony in a state of pure torturous suspense. "It's… complicated, Mr Almeida, whilst we were operating on her, she-" the doctor stopped, his eyes filled with sadness. "She went into shock, then her heart started convulsing, she went into cardiac arrest, the surgeons are trying to revive her as we speak…" Tony's hearing suddenly stopped, along with every other sense, she was near death, his mind allowed a few possible scenarios of what his life would be like if she dies, he imagined himself going into a downwards spiral, a ghost of his former self, the image playing against his closed lids was too depressing to watch so his mind allowed it to be disposed of. "Mr Almeida, it's not all bad news, the surgeons are skilled, and they're trying the best they can…"  
"But they can't guarantee she'll survive can they?" he challenged, lifting his head and silently daring the doctor to meet his eyes. The doctor swallowed. "No they can't, they say, Mr Almeida, the odds are, not exactly promising, around 50-50." Tony's vision blurred, he nodded and the doctor left, then, Tony fell into a deep, unconscious sleep.

When Tony woke, the doctor from before was in front of him, looking concerned. "Mr Almeida, are you alright?" he asked. Tony grunted as he sat up, before muttering something along the lines of yes. "Michelle?" was the first coherent word that escaped him. The doctor smiled lightly.  
"Recovery, she's alright Mr Almeida, she's been in recovery for about an hour, she should come around from anaesthetic within a few minutes, follow me." He stood up and looked for the recovery ward, his feet shuffling after the doctor, they found the right door and Tony practically darted inside. Michelle was there, fourth bed from the right, red curls spread out on a snowy pillow, a machine next to her emitting a series of high pitched beeps, signalling her (Thankfully) steady heartbeat. He dived into the chair next to the bed, took her hand and the knot inside his stomach loosened.  
"Sweetheart?" He kept his voice quiet so not to disturb the other patients. Michelle's brown eyes stayed shut. Tony cleared his throat "Sweetheart?" He said louder. Michelle stayed unresponsive; Tony looked at the doctor in confusion. "Give a few minutes; she needs to come back around from the drugs." He said calmly, he walked over and checked Michelle's heart monitor, wrote something on a chart and swiftly exited the room, as Michelle stirred. "Michelle?" Her eyes fluttered lightly, and then opened, her big brown eyes dull and dark. "Tony." She said emotionlessly. Tony didn't notice at first, he laughed in joy and leant forward to kiss her, she jerked her head to the side, in a very obvious sign of rejection. Tony recoiled, "Michelle? What's wrong?" She carried on staring at the ceiling. "Doctor!" Tony shouted, looking for a panic button, he found it and leant to press it but Michelle silently reached up and blocked his arm. "Don't." she said, irritated like a mother talking to an annoying toddler. "Can you ring my mom and tell her not to move her schedule just because her child is in hospital?" she asked sarcastically. Tony's famously quick temper flared up.  
"Just because you're pissed with your mom no need to take it out on me." He said icily. Michelle turned to him, lips pressed together, a tear slid down her cheek. "Tony, I don't want to be like this, It's just, this is gonna sound bad, but I took a bullet for you, you don't seem even a bit grateful." She said. "Took a bullet, what the hell Michelle I wasn't even there." He said, then she explained.

"When you left I was upset, I went into my room, thinking you were ending it with me, I got upset, cried for a bit then decided to go to bed, I didn't know where you were, I was taking a couple of sleeping pills when I saw something outside. So I went to see. There was a guy on the roof of the community building opposite my apartment. He had a gun, so, instinctively; I reached for my gun and went out onto my patio. The guy saw me, and started running, that's when I went inside. Don't get your ego in a twist but I rang Jack-"  
"Why not me?" were the jealous words that shot from Tony's mouth but Michelle waved all his jealous questions away with a flick of her hand. "I called Jack, explained, and he said he'd get onto it." He rang me back about five minutes later, saying Chloe had identified him as a guy in Nahir Jared's group, you know, the terrorist who CTU think might be dealing in nuclear weapons selling. He's been hunting down people in CTU since we started our investigation. So I was in my bedroom, back to the patio, when there was a smash and I got shot. Jack got concerned when I didn't call him back with an update, so he came round after I'd been taken in. He found caught the guy down Westcrove Avenue, demanded he talk, he did, unsurprisingly. The guy was looking for you Tony, the bullet was meant for you, he didn't even know I worked for CTU until he saw my gun in my hand and worked it out. That's why I'm not exactly overly pleased to see you, I'm happy your ok, it's sweet you came to the hospital, but because of you I nearly died, not that I wouldn't take another bullet for you tomorrow, you know I would, it's just, you act like I'm the bad one, even when I'm explaining to you, whilst in a hospital bed, that I was scared because a terrorist was literally staring me in the eye, I ring a male colleague that isn't you, and you get jealous. Tony it's immature and pathetic." Tony stared at her, he'd been so stupid, obviously she'd be slightly pissed that she'd been shot cause of him, but it was the next phrase that shocked him. "You seem to just want to control me, it doesn't exactly make me believe all the words you say about trusting me, because it's so obvious you don't."  
"That's total crap Michelle." He said angrily. "I do trust you, it's the other people I don't trust."  
"For Gods sake tony, you don't trust Jack to be around me? I can't help but notice that whenever there's any sort of field mission to do with him you cross my name off the list."  
"That's because he's not exactly a good luck charm, think, Nina turns into a terrorist, Kim doesn't want anything to do with him, Teri's dead, Jack's a close friend but he's totally unstable." Michelle's eyes turned from dull to fiery, she sat up, took a deep breath and said "Get out of here Tony, Jack's a friend to me, and I'm not gonna let you go around discrediting him."  
"Chelle…"  
"Bye Tony." She said, injecting firmness into her tone, she turned round, facing away from him. Tony swore under his breath and stood up; at the door he turned round and tried once more. "Look Chelle, I didn't mean to hurt you, honestly, it's just I…" He didn't know how to finish the sentence, the honest thing would have been to say he loved her, but he didn't know if that was too far, they had said that they loved each other, but only ever stupidly, like when they were at dinner or after spending the night at the others apartment. Maybe she'd just think he was saying it to patronise her, or get around her. "I'd never intentionally harm you." He said out loud, she ignored him, he stormed out.

She was back at work two weeks later, a false smile pinned on her face and her red curls tied back. Tony watched from his office, trying to catch a small sentence, maybe a mention of his name. He watched her quietly console her fellow female workers, who tried, to no avail, to mask the look of disapproval at her very short recovery time. When Michelle walked up to Kim, Tony started concentrating properly. Jack's daughter was close to Michelle, looked up to her like a mother figure, and Michelle looked at Kim as a godchild, so if she was going to reveal anything about they're dying relationship (Michelle had refused to answer any of Tony's phone calls and demanded he stop coming to her house before she phoned the cops.) it would be to her. Michelle went to the bathroom, followed by Kim; obviously they were going to somewhere more private. Tony groaned, kicked the wall and started running down the steps; he went down to the corridor that led to the bathrooms and waited outside the Ladies room, feeling like a 17 year old peeping Tom.

"Look, maybe he was just worried, I mean, come on Michelle, he's crazy about you."  
"I, I just don't know. I haven't seen him today, where is he?"  
"In his office, probably watching you."  
"I doubt it."  
"Look, just please get back with him, he's one in a million, a great guy, they're hard to come by, and if you let him go you might not get another guy like him."  
Tony nodded, best advice he'd heard all day, he must see that Kim got some sort of pay rise.  
"Fine, I'll give it a shot. But I swear, one wrong word and he's gone, I'm at the end of my nerves." Michelle said, suddenly the door Tony was leaning against shot open, he had milliseconds, what did he do, stay there, dive into the men's across the corridor, crawl into foetal position and cry…

Wham. Tony's ribcage hit the floor of the men's toilet with an incredible force from the forward dive, usually used for avoiding bombs; Tony suspected he had just avoided an explosion. The door swung shut behind him and Tony heard heels clicking against the floor, in front of the door, a pause, and then they carried on, from the floor Tony gave a huge sigh of relief; he was safe, for now.

Tony walked towards the photocopier room, a stack of files in hand, one of the most mundane jobs in the whole building and it had been given to him, Tony Almeida, with level 6 clearance and years of experience, "Go press a button." Challenging Ryan, real challenging. The machine whirred into action as the door behind him banged shut. Ten minutes later the door creaked, as the machine was printing out 500 copies of Nahir Jared's face Michelle's voice carried over the noise.  
"Tony, we need to talk."


	7. The Surprise

**I'm soooo sorry this is so late, but my life's been hectic at the moment, hope you enjoy, please review to tell me what you think :D**

He was standing by the machine, obviously in a world of his own, when Michelle had entered. "Tony we need to talk." Had been the phrase she'd spoke, whatever it was, the guilt of how he felt or the shock of her sudden appearance had caused him to stumble in total surprise, slipping and falling onto the machine, causing around roughly three dozen posters to come shooting out at around three hundred miles per hour. Tony got to his feet and turned the stupid machine off.

Paper now littered the floor, a scratch on Tony's cheek was bleeding and Michelle had never felt such a strong urge to shoot into his arms, but as normal for work-Michelle, she composed herself, smoothing her blouse and kicking posters out of the way so she could advance towards him. "Yeah we do." Tony said a little too enthusiastically, there was even a glint of his old sarcasm finding its way back into his voice but with a sharp look and a not-so-subtle throat clearing cough Tony sobered up, the joyful grin falling back into a casual half smile. Michelle fought against her insides, which were trying to smile back at her ex boyfriend, who somehow, even now, managed to be the main focus point of her life, the best thing in her life, and then it hit her, she'd fell heavily for all of her boyfriends, that was the main reason she'd had so few, but unlike Roger and Luke, she'd fell even further with Tony, she actually _loved _him, serious love, rather than the love that they had fleetingly spoken about in the seven months they had been dating, (Tony always commented on how it felt like eight or even nine months, and until he explained he meant it as a compliment Michelle had taken offence at this)

Michelle was quite a traditional girl, and prided herself on not being one of those girls who declared love on the first date, or second or third or tenth. Truth was, she'd never been _in _love, she'd just thought she had. Could this be her mind again, pretending that she was in love, no, this was different, this was her heart and she could feel it beating hard under her professionally buttoned blouse. Tony's smile had changed slightly, so it now took on a sweet question mark quality. "Michelle?" Not hearing him call her sweetheart or darling was a shock to Michelle.  
"Tony…" she was meant to break up with him, but she loved him, she felt angry and upset with him, yet she never wanted to let him go. Hating herself for being so damn in-the-middle about this she decided she'd come back to it after a nights sleep. As if reading her mind, Tony smiled a sad but sweet lopsided smile and gathered up the posters, putting them into his suitcase. "How about we do this tomorrow?" As he left, Michelle felt a quick drop of relief seep into her like a drug, soaking into her body, before it stopped and something, maybe Aimee's influence again, demanded she go after him. So she did.

Running down the corridor Michelle shouted his name. "Tony." He stopped instantly, one hand on the door that lead to the main floor. Letting this feeling in her gut lead she let the words tumble. "You have something to say?" Tony instantly looked down, and shook his head, but he was lying.  
"Tony I'm not planning on dumping you sometime in the next month so you might as well tell me so I can decide whether or not I need to change that statement."  
"You're not breaking up with me?"  
"Unfortunately I can't, my stupid brain seems to have gotten used to you hanging around, I've just had a revelation, guess what, I love you." Cursing herself, because it wasn't possible for her to have said it any louder, Michelle quickly looked around, one or two work colleagues had frozen outside doors, busy comprehending the drama going on between them. "You say that like it's a bad thing." Tony said, lowering his voice as if to say, _see Michelle, not everyone screams like a lunatic in their work place. _"Well it's not good for me exactly, to be in love with a guy who's A) my boss and B) I'm meant to be mad at."  
"Michelle, it has been weeks, it's scientifically impossible for you to still be mad at me."  
"Then you have a lot to learn about women." Michelle said huffily, but she could tell the fight was over; they were back to their playful fights. "Clearly that's true, maybe you could be a tutor?" He smirked at her and kissed her forehead lightly. Some very indiscreet coughing erupted from behind them as Chloe O'Brian tried to push past, a billion files in her hands. "Could you guys try to be a tiny bit less public with the affection, Ryan catches you you'll both be fired, you know how Mr Chappelle is about interpersonal work relationships, just saying." She shoved past Tony, giving Michelle a very quick smirk, and then she was gone.

"Uh Michelle, I think we should tell Ryan about us."  
"Uh Tony, if you wanna get fired then go for it, not for me." She wasn't being harsh, she simply liked her life, eating and living under a roof, not too much to ask surely? "Michelle, he'll find out soon either way, so we might as well say now."  
"How would he find out?" Michelle looked him in the eyes; he looked away, took her hand and walked through the doors to the main floor, not answering her question. "Fine, Jesus Christ why not go the whole hog and drag me by my hair?" Michelle expressed her complaints irritably, but then sobered up as she saw how nervous Tony was, beads of sweat were breaking out on his forehead and his grip was slippery. Michelle squeezed his hand as they walked up the metal stairs towards Ryan's office, getting a very surprising applause by a good dozen CTU workers, it probably looks iconic, Michelle thought, the couple standing up against the rules and regulations, not putting up with prejudice towards work lovers any longer, clasping hands as they walked towards their possible deaths…

Tony was the one who knocked in the end. After ten seconds of silent arguing, he'd finally pounded on the door with his other left hand, the one not joined with Michelle's. Their fingers intertwined as Ryan looked up briefly and nodded. They stood in front of his desk. Their hands, a definite symbol of their relationship would have been visible, if the old trout had looked up, but he didn't. As he always did, he simply made a questioning noise, clicking his tongue, still writing on some sheet of paper that Michelle thought looked suspiciously like a ripped out Sudoku from the Sun newspaper. When they didn't say anything, Ryan put his pen down and looked up. "What is it? I'm really busy so if this is just about wages or some-" There it is, the cut off in speech as he realised they were in their together as a couple, rather than just united in some pay argument. "I hope, for both your sakes, that you are not suggesting you are both together." His eyes were calm, but his voice sounded strangulated, as if he'd just inhaled Hydrogen Cyanide.

"Mr Chappelle, mine and Michelle's relationship does not interfere with our work in any way, and it won't in the future either." Tony was perfect, he spoke confidently, but still respectfully, he also had a slight hint You-need-us-here, almost insinuating he couldn't fire us. "Almeida, Dessler, how many times have I said this? This job and relationships don't work; look at Jack and Teri, Chloe and Morris. I won't have our work being in possible jeopardy because you both decided to get into a relationship that will never work." Ryan was bluffing, Michelle could see, he was hoping he could break them up, that their love for their jobs was stronger than for each other, and it made her, well, pissed off.

"Mr Chappelle, we didn't do this deliberately, and I'm sorry that this isn't going according to plan, trust me, I really am, I wish this hadn't happened but it has, I'm not putting my job before my future, no matter what you say."  
"Well, that's one way of putting it, I can't afford to fire you, but when he dumps you next week I better not hear you complaining about it." Anger boiled over, and, in a blind moment of fury Michelle wrenched her hand from Tony's and smacked her palm on Ryan's desk, thumping its mate down next to it. "We've been dating for seven months." She said smugly, she got her reaction, the not-caring look changing to a what-the-hell look. "You're telling me now, you've been dating seven months and you're telling me now?" Michelle stepped back, maybe this wasn't such a good idea, it had seemed a lot smarter swimming around in Michelle's head in the sea of anger and time of the month touch-me-I'll-kill-you ness. "Yes sir, we didn't know if it would last." Michelle said, her smugness dissipating into the air.  
"Get out of my office, no get out of the building, and be damn grateful you're expected back tomorrow morning." He sharply proclaimed, Michelle didn't need to be told twice. Still, she decided to have one last go at of annoying Ryan, of course it worked, girls are naturally gifted, if they want to they can push any man to wanting to scream, by simply grabbing Tony's hand rubbing his palm with her thumb intimately she had caused Ryan Chappelle to sigh irritably and knock his pen cup onto the floor.

When the glass door closed Michelle and Tony both let out a deep breath, she didn't know about her boyfriend, but she certainly felt very relieved to be out of the hell-hole. Michelle kept her eyes on the stairs as she walked down the stairs. A very awkward air surrounded the two of them, and, though she didn't know what, Michelle had been sensing something off about Tony all day. Everybody was looking at them, obviously wondering if they'd got fired. "We haven't been fired, but Ryan is very pissed off so if I were you lot I'd avoid going up there." " Tony said, before they left the building and headed towards the car park.

Heading towards her car, Michelle went though her bag, looking for her keys before Tony, breathing heavily, came up behind her and went around so that he was blocking her car door. "Tony I need to get to my car." Michelle said.  
"Michelle, can I ask you something?"  
"Go ahead."  
"Ok, this is going to be a bit of a surprise."  
"What sort of a surprise?" Michelle felt her stomach sink, she hated surprises, for some reason, with her, they were always very bad. Tony swallowed, and then reached into his jacket. "I would have done it the traditional way but I didn't think you'd want the undying awkwardness." Standing in front of her, a look of desperation on his face, Tony pulled out a small box and opened it, turning the black velvet towards her so she could see the small but perfect ring nestled inside. Michelle felt her sharp intake of breath and her mind went totally blank.

The ring was silver, unlike most girls, Michelle could tell the difference between delicate, pure silver and brash, cold white gold, which Michelle utterly hated. In the centre, next to the graceful swirls and curlicues engraved into the silver, was a beautiful purple amethyst, practically glowing against the black velvet. "Michelle will you marry me?" Tony's voice was like an echo in Michelle's head, the words repeating themselves over and over. "Yes." Michelle said, her eyes glazing over. "Yes Tony of course I'll marry you!" Tony gathered her up in his arms and kissed her passionately. A feeling of lethargic happiness spreading in her soul, Michelle allowed herself to be tucked under Tony's arm, as he lead her towards his car, leaving her own Citroen in the car park, to face a night alone.


	8. Intro season 3

**I am so sorry for the lateness. This whole year has been just a pile of stupidness, the lives of a teenage girl. So, in an attempt to hopefully make you all happy, here's another Tony and Michelle chapter, this is more of an intro to season 3 but I have a couple more I'm uploading straight after, I went on a bit of a writing spree :D. Review and read. I've missed fanfiction!**

The alarm bleeped. The stupid charm that dragged Michelle from her dreams every morning. She opened her eyes, smiling automatically as she turned over and saw her husband, Tony Almeida, smiling whilst his eyes stayed shut. She had the slightest suspicion he was actually awake but pretended to be fooled by his acting. She pulled his arm from around her waist and stood up. As she started the shower, peeling off her clothes and stepping into the warmth of the running water she heard a noise from her bedroom. Just as the started massaging her conditioner (she'd decided on tropical orange mango and coconut for this morning) through her messy red curls the bathroom door clicked open quietly. She grinned, closing her eyes to stop the suds from stinging her eyes. "Baby? Mind if I join you?" His voice, still sounding sleepy, echoed around the bathroom. She sighed, like it was the last resort. "If you must, can't waste the hot water and we're low on time anyway." The glass shower door opened and Tony stepped inside, a content sigh escaping from his lips as the first few drops of hot water ran down his cold skin. He span her around to face him and kissed her mouth gently. "Someone's in a cheery mood." Tilting her head back Michelle washed the conditioner from her hair, waiting for an answer. He just kept smiling at her as he gently traced over her gorgeous figure. "You need to get washed and dressed, you know, for that work thing we do?" She rolled her eyes as he took no notice. Shaking her head she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before diving out of the shower, wrapping a towel around herself and starting to get dressed.

Half an hour later they were in their car. Michelle gladly threw Tony the keys, desperate to take a break from her usual driving position. He caught them and slid into the driver's seat without too much fuss. "I can't believe it's taking so long, it's usually fine in the mornings." Michelle still had a towel in her hand and desperately tried to dry her damp hair. "Honey it'll dry when we get to CTU, people aren't going to care if your hairs a little wet, it still looks gorgeous, as do you."  
"Aren't you a charmer?" Though her tone was sarcastic she was smiling. She loved it when Tony complimented her, other than her brother he was the only one whose compliments she actually believed.

It seemed only five minutes later that they were in the CTU car park. As they both exited the care and slammed the doors they started walking towards the building. Tony held the door for her and she smiled as she ducked under his arm.

The day had started off great. That's always a warning sign though isn't it? If a day starts off so brilliant, like hers did nearly every day, it only makes sense that soon the day would have to spiral downwards. Sadly that day had come. Poor Michelle didn't know what was coming.


	9. Gonna be a busy day: Michelle

**Hey, I wanted the last chapter to be a sort of intro to the day, here's the official chapter 8 read and review for me, well if you want to of course, it will make my day if you review, and I'll be so happy... no pressure :D (I'm joking, review if you want, it's up to you, I'm grateful for anything)**

Tony turned to face his wife as she told him Dr Sunny Macer wished to speak with him. Urgently. He picked up the phone and asked her what the emergency was. He dropped all formalities, after all, he'd known Sunny for over fifteen years; she was a dear family friend. The telephone call wasn't friendly though, strictly business. Sunny told him of a body that had been dropped off at the health centre. The body was infected with some sort of virus, a virus that Sunny called the Cordilla virus. Sunny said what he was thinking; apparently these guys were real serious. They blew a hole in the wall to get her attention, and the body was addressed TO her. Tony was uncertain about this, he didn't want Sunny to get wound up in a possible terrorist situation; it wasn't her job.

He followed protocol and asked for blood results. They'd find out who this man was and then tell the family that he was dead. That was something he hated. Telling people family had died, something inside him was against giving bad news. He always messed it up somehow. He turned to his wife and told her to order a level one protocol search.

Tony thought about the body as he continued with his days work. A pneumatic virus. As if CTU weren't already stretched, now there was a bio threat, the last thing anyone needed really. Interrupting his internal monologue his CTU phone rang, Jack.

"Hey Jack."  
"Tony is anything going on over there? Jack's voice sounded grave. Tony nearly rolled his eyes, if Jack wanted a situation he'd certainly called at the right time. "We just had a major protocol come in. Possible bio-threat to the city."  
"Tell me about it."  
"Well the body infected with the Cordilla virus was left at Health services we figure it's just the first shoe dropping; we're waiting for somebody to take responsibility." Tony waited.  
"Jack?"  
"Yeah?" Jack finally answered.  
"You thinking this is connected to Salazar?" Tony finally vocalised the thought that had been stabbing him in the back of his mind.  
"I don't know. I don't know, maybe. Look I'll get back to you." He sounded agitated, with Jack that was rarely good so Tony simply said "Alright" and hung up; wondering what was going to happen next.

Tony received another phone call within the next few minutes. This was better news though; he had been waiting for this call for a good few hours. Finally he would be finding out if he could get a job with Larry Hertzog, CIA. It would be better paid; better environment and Tony wanted it. They also said they'd see if they had a position for Michelle. It never crossed Tony's mind that they wouldn't have one, Michelle was skilled and any person would love to have her working for them. He always thought her confidence must be pretty low to assume she might not get the job.

When he picked up the phone Michelle watched him, he could just see her in his peripheral vision. He could hardly believe what he was hearing. They couldn't have Michelle, and yet they still wanted to hear from him by the end of the day. He was torn between wanting the job and not wanting to go if Michelle couldn't go with him.

"Tell Michelle I'm sorry." Larry sounded genuinely apologetic but Tony didn't want to hear it.  
"Yeah I will, thanks." He hung the phone up and turned to his beautiful wife who was standing there patiently, waiting. "Was that about me?" she asked uncertainly, Tony knew he'd hate himself for doing this. Ok, just say it his mind whispered. "Yeah… he doesn't have a job for you right now. There's no new funding until after the election." Wondering if he'd been too harsh or blunt he watched the news sink in as her head dipped and she took a slightly surprised breath. It looked like she was trying not to cry, and if Tony didn't know better he'd say that's what she was doing. But he did know her better; he knew she was still processing it, needing to think for a minute as she always did. "I see." The disappointment was clear in her voice and Tony hated it.

"Also um, Larry told me he needs an answer by the end of the day." He didn't like mentioning it, he hated even more mentioning it right after he'd told her she didn't have the job but he desperately wanted to know what she wanted. Michelle nodded slowly as she turned her head away and looked out of the glass window, down onto the busy CTU that never slowed down. "They're in a hurry to fill the post." He explained quickly. She looked up at him and then, like the Michelle he knew and loved she put him first. She was always doing that, thinking of others, it was an admirable trait, and partly what made her such a brilliant agent. "We both know you can't pass this up, it's a major career move." Her voice still sounded sad, though she was trying to hide it under a cloak of determination. She sighed slightly before regaining her composure which she'd let go for less than a second "Call him and tell him it's a yes." She said. He tilted his head to the side, he knew her far too well.

"And you'll come along as the wife, without a job?"  
"I'll go anywhere with you." She paused and smiled slightly "As long as I don't have to cook." Tony chuckled softly; it wasn't a secret that Michelle was an awful cook. Some men might have found it a major turn off; Tony loved it because he could cook and loved it.  
"Sweetheart if you promise not to cook I will take you with me anywhere." Tony saw his favourite Michelle smile flash past, subtle but definitely there, shy and adorable, just like her. He loved that smile almost as much as he loved her laugh, almost. Her laugh was the most amazing thing, happy and sincere and completely genuine. Thinking of her laugh Tony shook his head. "But uh, if they don't have a job for you then I'm not interested." Michelle opened her mouth to try to convince him to change his mind when the phone beeped and Tony was told that Homeland security were on line one. Michelle took that as her cue to leave and headed towards the door with a simple "We'll talk about this later" followed by that gorgeous smile again. Tony watched as she left and then picked up the phone with a sigh, he had the sudden urge to go downstairs, grab Michelle's hand and tell everyone they were off. "Almieda" he repeated in a bored tone for the fiftieth time that day.

She walked across the main CTU floor, her head still slightly spinning. There was no point lying about it, she'd been longing for this job and she'd thought she'd been in with a pretty good shot. She walked over to Kim Bauer; her bright blonde hair was easy to spot among the dark brunettes. She thought of Kim, receiving the job because Jack was her father but she felt mean. Kim wasn't a bad employee, she was organised and to some extent better then a lot of their previous IT workers but she worried about how Jack fussed over her. In confidence Jack told her he wanted Kim in a safe job where he could keep an eye on her and that was the reason he gave her the job. At the time Michelle hadn't thought much of it but it did sound a tad over protective, Kim was an adult now and Jack still treated her like a little girl. That's fathers for you.

"Hey Kim?"  
"Yes Michelle?" Kim span round instantly to face her boss and Michelle felt slightly uneasy at the eager expression in Kim's eyes, like she was desperate to keep Michelle happy. What did Kim think she'd do, bite her? "You ever done a capability search?" She pressed on.  
"A couple of weeks ago I did one for Tony."  
"East European cells?"  
"Yes."  
"Good. This one's different, this is gonna be global." She scribbled quickly on a piece of paper and handed it to Kim. "Here's my access code."  
"I'll get right on it." Again with the desperate happy-to-please attitude, why couldn't Kim treat her like a normal boss? Michelle was the one who caught the terrorists she wasn't one herself.

Adam never treated her like that. Adam was always casual and easy going with her like she used to be with Tony when he was her boss. Come to think of it, it was only Kim that treated Michelle with any sort of anxiousness. Chloe acted like her normal sarcastic self, Adam was normal, Tony was obviously just Tony and Jack was still the friend/protector figure he'd always been in her mind.  
"Adam I'm piping this over to your system." Michelle tapped away at her keyboard and spoke to Adam over her shoulder. "What is it?" he asked and she heard the clicking on the screen that Adam always did whilst he waited for something. "Brags on the body that was dropped off at Health services. We're doing an ID analysis."She came over and leaned her hands on the desk next to Adam's computer as she spoke to Kim sitting on the other side of the divide. "Kim where are you on the capability search?"  
"Still running, gonna be another fifteen minutes."  
"So you're open?" Kim gave her a slightly curious look.  
"Yeah what do you need?"  
"Adam's gonna break of part of an ID, we need a name." She turned to Adam. "Give her a DNA file." She felt a headache coming on in the back of her mind.  
"I don't need her help." Adam protested like a child. Michelle had to really struggle to keep from rolling her eyes, why was this such a big deal? "Yes you do. This is urgent." Urgent, the perfect excuse when you can't think straight enough to give a solid answer. To avoid more pouting Michelle walked away, leaving Kim and Adam to get on with the argument that was slowly brewing between them. They were always fighting, some people said it was amazing how they worked in the same office, Michelle put it down to some sort of sexual tension, but maybe she was just being overly dramatic.

Praying that Jack would be a little more mature Michelle called him. She knew he had arrived back as she'd seen he and Chase enter the building and Jack had gone straight up to his office. "Yeah?"  
"Jack its Michelle. The teleconference with health services is about to start, you might wanna come down." She said, wondering why he sounded so tired. Should she be concerned or was that verging on creepy? "Uh no I'm gonna stay up here, just patch them through ok?" He definitely sounded weak, shaky. She never thought she'd ever use those words to describe Jack Bauer.  
"Ok." she said deciding to leave it, Jack could look after himself.  
"Thanks." He hung up.

"We just received results of more tests Tony, unfortunately the news isn't good." Michelle struggled to stay still in her seat next to Tony as Sunny Macer spoke. She looked grave as she told them that the Cordilla virus was a weaponised strain, engineered to kill more rapidly. "How rapidly?" Tony asked, Jack had so far stayed silent on the phone so Michelle couldn't tell how he was feeling. "It's a bit of a guess, but based on the autopsy, if the infection starts a T equals zero hours, there's a non-contagious latency period of fourteen hours. After fourteen it presents, after twenty the host is incapacitated, by twenty-four the host is dead." Michelle and Tony turned to face each other at the exact same time, this could mean serious trouble, Michelle saw worry in Tony's eyes which reflected her own. Tony sighed before asking "What are epidemiological consequences?"  
"If the virus initiates at a single location, there will be a couple hundred cases by the end of day one." Tony and Michelle turned towards the screen showing a series of information as they listened to Dr Macer speak. She sounded calm but Michelle didn't believe for a second that she wasn't petrified underneath, Michelle knew she herself was. "By the end of day two, it could be in the thousands, but from there it's easier to talk about in percentage of population. By the end of the first week, nine percent of Los Angeles County will be infected." Michelle stared at the screen, unable to take it in; she clearly wasn't the only one. "Nine percent? That's over a million people." Tony sat back, a look of disbelief on his face. "And those people will die within twenty-four hours of infection." The news just kept getting worse.  
"Alright, so tell me, if someone were gonna try to release this virus in the general population, how would they do it?"  
"That's the million-dollar question, it could come from anywhere. We don't know who has it, there's no way to know where they plan to release it. We don't even know what form it's in." Michelle glanced at Tony again; it seemed like a hopeless case, did they have any information on this at all? For some reason Michelle expected Jack to wrap things up but he hadn't spoke for the whole conference and he was ending it either, she felt slightly worried, but this paled in comparison to the cloud of total unbelievable angst this Bio-Threat had bought on. Michelle took a deep breath, this was gonna be a busy day.


	10. Gunshot: Tony

**Chapter... 9! That's it, chapter 9 of the story, season three may be sort of chopped up a bit into smaller chapters. It's simply because it's one of my favourite seasons and I want to do it justice by not glossing over main Tony and Michelle moments, so enjoy, read and review if you like and thank you so much if you're still even interested in this after the long wait.**

The phone call ordering the release of Ramon Salazar was a bit of a shock. Michelle had been the one to hear it, so she went to Gael immediately. Gael, how to describe him. A good agent, good guy in general, he always treated Michelle with respect and she liked that, treating him likewise.  
"I'm closing in on the origin of the call." She told him. For a brief second an expression flashed over his face, Michelle decided to ignore it. "I'll sned it over to your system, make a match." She went to walk away and then remembered something. "Oh, jack's closing in on the virus by the way." She allowed herself a small smile. In her head, Jack and Tony would find Kyle, find the virus and stop all this. She had faith in the two of them. By the look on Gael's face it looked like he didn't.

"Son of a bitch." It was approaching four in the afternoon and Tony was on his way to the mall. To find Kyle Singer. They'd been so close, until they realised the powder was clear. A harmless powder. Kyle however, wasn't harmless. Jack reckoned he was infected, within three hours he was going to be symptomatic, and if that happened in a crowded place like the mall… Tony didn't even want to think of it.

The chopper landed and Tony jumped out. He had to admit, even in the tense situation he was in the chopper ride had been pretty cool. He quickened to a jog and just as he made it into the mall, his sunglasses concealing his eyes, one of the security guards told him Kyle had been found. Tony started following his directions, calling Jack on the way.  
"Hey Jack, security found Singer, we're about to pick him up." Tony told him, slightly breathless.  
"Ok, where are you?"Jack, as usual, spoke in his intense low voice.  
"Second floor, Rotunda. Top of the north escalator. Where are you?"  
"We're coming into the loading dock, north entrance. You got a visual?"  
"Yeah, I got him."  
"Where have you placed your men?"  
"We're posted at all the main entrances."  
"Ok, good. We should be there in about a minute." This comforted him. At least he'd have back up soon, in literally a minute. "Alright." He hung up.

Tony walked up to the security guard and told him, in a clear voice "I don't want to cause any kind of commotion." Something in the back of his mind laughed, yeah cause CTU agents NEVER cause a commotion. He checked to see Kyle was still in his eye view, he was. There was a man's voice behind him, he heard a couple of words of the conversation "Only chance" "Can't wait." Naturally he ignored this, he was far to busy to worry about random shopper's telephone calls, even if they did sound a little suspicious. "Wait here, I wanna make a clean grab." Tony said, finally deciding on how to approach this. "Yes sir." He heard, but by this time he was already walking towards the teenager, who looked more than a little nervous.  
"Kyle?" Tony took note of what Michelle had said to him months ago, how he had to try to keep his voice sounding less aggressive. He thought he'd done pretty well.  
"Who are you?"  
"My name's Tony Almeida, I'm a federal agent but I'm here to help you. What your father told you about you being sick is true."  
"I don't believe you." Jesus kid, give me a break. Tony made an extra special effort to sound non- threatening as he said "Come with me, I'll prove it to you."

For a second he saw Kyle consider it. For such a brief second Tony felt a burst of pride as Kyle moved one foot forward.

Then it happened. A couple of footsteps sounded very close behind Tony but he didn't have time to turn around before a loud gunshot went off. Suddenly he was on the floor, blood pouring from his neck, cursing as he saw Kyle bolt away from the scene. It wasn't pain he felt at first, just fear. He knew it was a bad shot. Tony had been shot four times before, never in the neck. He imagined Michelle's eyes widening in shock when she heard this. A gunshot to the neck; sounds like a death sentence to most people. The pain did kick in after that, sudden sharp agonising waves of pain that drew a hiss from deep down within him. He just about heard Jack's voice shouting "He's been shot in the neck." At this proclamation Tony felt another wave, this time it hit him right in his head. He knew other words were being said but couldn't focus on them. As Jack bent down he saw the look in his... ok he'd say it, in his_ friend's_ eyes. He looked, quite frankly, scared. That was something Tony hadn't seen more than a few times and it petrified him. He must have been bad…. Real bad… The waves were back, sloshing back and forth, never ceasing, not even for a moment. The last thought in Tony's mind before he fell into unconsciousness was just her face, and his own internal monologue saying, in a voice as slow and weak as he felt "I need to say goodbye to her."


End file.
